I'm trying to find a new church...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

and I'm having trouble...I don't like the priest at the church across the street. He's a little unpersonal. The one time I went, he was in such a hurry to get he hell out of there, I didn't even see him leave. When I was coming around the building, walking home, I saw him getting into his car with luggage. He didn't even wave. So now I'm looking for a new church. I miss my old parish, but it's almost an hour away.
Duckie

[Beer Snob-50]

1. when i moved to my current town,

there are four catholic churches in it and i went to all four before picking one that best suited my needs and my families. i don't know how big your town is or how many catholic churches but just take your time and visit them all.

[CBHagman]

2. Some considerations.

Is there more than one priest at the parish, and have you had other opportunities to get a feel for the church? I realize some churches can be less than welcoming. You can literally go to the same church for years and not talk to anybody at all, aside from perfunctory greetings and the sign of peace (and, of course, PRAYER and confession).

I operate more on the three-strikes rule on churches. :-) It takes me a while to decide whether to make a home in a church, and sometimes the attempt to join the church itself has been the deciding factor.

If you do have other options, by all means visit other churches. Perhaps you could talk to parishioners as well and see if there's a good fit in terms of philosophy. For example, I'm much happier at my current church, which is fairly tolerant, than I was at the previous two churches I attended, one of which was rather dramatically conservative.

[hedgehog]

3. These comments are interesting

One person commented on the pastor and the other on the people. i think that shows that it takes both to make a good parish. I get the feeling that some of the clergy are afraid that if the laity get involved, the clergy will become redundant, which is absolutely untrue. Some bishops believe that if parishes have many small groups they can build mega churches - super sized parishes served by a single priest thereby taking care of the priest shortage. I would suggest that that isn't true. i think we're all looking for a church home something like Cheers "where everybody knows your name".